I go to the VA in Pittsburgh and their surgeons all come from UPMC so I have had the same one for my two previous nee surgeries and all of the shots for the last five years. She will keep shooting them up until I'm ready which will be when they don't work anymore, ask my wife. Take care of the Melanoma, my wife's first husband suc***bed to it.
Sold my big truck back in October 2011 and retired at the age of 63. I finished my '46 Business Coupe then sold it and then built a '63 C10 from a shell. I decided to take a part time job, to help pay for my addiction in the spring of 2013. 2 years later I was back to 50 - 60 hours, 5 days a week! Fast forward to March of this year, started feeling poorly and figured I had better get checked out, that was the beginning of the adventure. Since then I have had 2 surgeries, AAA repair and a heart stent, was diagnosed with Bilateral Pneumonia which put me back in the hospital last month and I am still facing afib issues that will need addressing. Once the afib issues are taken care of, I am pulling the plug for good! I am now 69 years old and have finally realized that I am not made of steel, this year has been a real eye opener. I have a nice shop that is loaded with tools, a '29 Tudor that needs to be finished, a '57 Chevy Belair that needs to be re***embled and my eldest grandsons '69 El Camino SS that I promised him we would have rebuilt by his 16th birthday which is just a little over two years away. I can tell you one thing, it doesn't matter what kind of shop that you have, how many tools you have or how many projects that you have, if you don't have your health then you don't have ****! As they say, if I had known that I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself. So, take care of your self, pursue the things that make you happy. You never know when it's going to jump up and bite you....
Retired in Feb.'07 after 40 years on the railroad. Just completed 4th trip to the land of fruits and nuts from San Antonio in our Deuce roadster built in '10. It just turned over 30,000. We have our health at 71 and 74, always attend the LSRU every April in Austin, and will include the Cajun version of LSRU, the Bayou Roundup, in LaFayette, Louisiana this October. We have our pewter cup from LARS, memories from the '14 California Hotrod Reunion, and silt in our shoes from 2 trips to El Mirage. Life is great. The view is so right looking over that pointed hood of the '32. Retire when you can and don't look back.
I want to retire at 63. A little over eight years from now. But I am worried about health insurance. You guys who retired early, what did you do about health insurance?
I'm extremely fortunate that I can take mine with me (I still pay thru the nose for it). Have you looked into Medicare/Medicaid? You probably can't get that now, but by 63 I'd think that may be an option. You could also Google "Low-cost health insurance" or "Medi-Share" and see if there's an option for you there. Good luck!
Health insurance is my concern in retirement, too. I've seen the results of a friend who was underinsured and don't want my family to deal with that. One catastrophic illness can destroy a lifetime of savings.
I spent the winters of 2014 and 2015 with my kero heater going. I was okay in a garage of 45*. People helping me showed up dressed like Eski****inmos. 2016... I was on the mend from heart surgery, no cold weather garaging for me. With the garage expansion plans comes something for better heat.
I'm considering going out at 64 and possibly even at 63. I would buy a policy to tide me over for the gap. Have to have something. Its only me so that cuts the costs. In the eye of something catastrophic and I was under-insured, I'd become a dirt bag. But I'd have the house in the kids' names before that.
Retired 18 yrs ago at 60. Home chores, taking care of wife, she has dementia, and sometimes getting to work on my projects. It's a great life, am in good health ,but sometimes I run out of steam. Yes retire if you have something to do.
Something else to consider. A relative of a work colleague was planning for retirement and a big move to Panama when he was 65. A couple of weeks ago he was involved in a seemingly minor car accident. He suffered internal injuries that required abdominal surgery, then suffered a stroke from a blood clot, and now he is gone at 61. Funeral yesterday. So you never know if you will make it.
I've been fortunate to retire from the Federal Aviation Administration. Been able to provide well for my family over the years with an excellent pension, great medical insurance. and prescription drug program Theres a lot to be said for working for the Government. The sad part of being retirement age is that as every year goes by theres a lot less of us old car guys. Lost an old friend just yesterday.
I have noticed the subject of wives come up peripherally here. They can make a big difference. I'll relate a little story. At my fiftieth high school cl*** reunion (which was almost 10 years ago), two guys showed up with genuine "trophy wives"; you know, thirties or early forties, attractive, and dressed to the nines. While the rest of us were whooping it up, having a good old time, BS'ing and all, I noticed these guys a couple of time in p***ing. They were sitting at their banquet tables, alone with their wives. By 10 PM, both were gone. The rest of us closed up the place and probably could have gone longer. As that great western philosopher, Jimmy Soul once said :
. w at age 67 ( worked 60-80 hours a week, 184 hours in one week is my personal record, went home had WAY more to do with the demise of Communism than Ronald Regan. I'm done, back to the correct way to wash a barn find for the rest of you. Fight the power. Mike[/QUOTE] Especially when there are only 168 hours in a week, had to be tough!!!!!!
Don't have any insurance. Only insurance is the mandated liability on my vehicles. None on the personal property houses ect. No health insurance. You can get medicare part A &B at 65 . It was going to reduce my Social Security Ponzi check check by $135 so I turned it down. Part A is supposively free and they wouldn't let me turn it down. I watch my weight and keep an eye on my blood pressure. Im healthy at present. One fact you live until you die. Spending money on health insurance don't change that fact.
I quit my job at 57 when the Plant Manager said working 55 hours every week for 35 hours pay was just coasting to retirement. Best thing is the phone hasn't rung at 2AM since.
Deucecoupe, married 3 times .I got tired of giving away cars and houses.LOL. Been married to this one 21 years now. Bruce.
As part of the benefits package at work, after 10 years we earn health insurance at 50% coverage of premiums. Additional years service earns increased % of premium coverage, I've now maxed out at 80%, so whenever I do retire the wife & I have health insurance for life at 20% of the premium cost. If I go first she remains covered. Of course, then there is Medicare that kicks in at 65. I'm not sure how that all works, but as I recall with my mom, she had medical coverage from my dad's employment, so Medicare was primary insurer and picked up the largest part of the tab, then her private insurance kicked in after that and picked up most of the rest, her portion of medical bills was pretty low.
Tubman, those old geezers with the trophy wives might have been guarding the trophys. Some of them are hard to keep on the porch
I have Medicare A, B, C ( I believe that is correct). Plus I pay Kaiser $44/mo for their insurance program. I am single by the way. I recently had a series of nose bleeds; that's right, nose bleeds. I had 7 trips to the emergency room, one 50 mile ambulance ride for emergency electronic surgery, and one trip to a spe******t. The bill was a bit over $12,000, my share was $700. And the local emergency hospital is not a Kaiser facility . I am thinking I should move up to the next Kaiser program, which is around $110/mo. As was mentioned previously, one big disaster and I may end up having to sell one or two of my beloved cars to pay the bill. But so far after 4 1/2 years retired I have been pretty fortunate. One piece of advice if you are still working and have employer's coverage, get caught up on dental work and other such things before you retire.
No kidding. why...it's almost as if there is an urgent need for some kind of National health care system! Hmmmmm. a lot of big talkers are going to have BIG trouble some day. I was laid off at 60! Thought I'd take SS at 62, but it's wiser to wait till 66. My wife is younger, I want her to retire ASAP as soon as I'm 66! Two more years. We do have about 1.2 Million, not as much as it sounds! Who would have EVER thought that? I enjoy NOT GIVING A ****! That's the best thing about retirement!
With my wife Jan being an American citizen (Texan) we could conceivably move to the south of the US, Arizona, New Mexico, or Texas in a few years when I retire. She is already retired. Given the state of health care that’s not an option. We’ll stay in Canada and keep our excellent health care. When I retire I’ll sign up with the Alberta retired teachers ***ociation and then we will have top notch dental, vision and all the other supplemental coverage we will need to replace my employment group plan. In 2013 I was hospitalized for 12 days for emergency brain surgery to repair a leak and save my life. Without universal insurance the bill would have been huge. It could have been financially devastating . The cost to me was zero. I’m happy that I’ll be around to retire when I’m ready.
Amen to that. Didn't know you were another teacher. I went with my wife to a retirement seminar a couple of years back. The presenter mentioned that teachers were one of the longest living professions post retirement. You said that she was curious why. One old gal explained that we **** the life out of our students!
Was it 134 hours straight, with no sleep? You are the man! The most I ever recall working straight through was 54 hours behind the wheel of a IH 1086 tractor. It was in the spring of the year and I thought I needed to get the field work done ASAP. I didn't keep track of how many hours I put in the rest of the week though. At my last employer some of those guys put me to shame though because they routinely put in 60 hours straight through working during planting season. Ahh, to be young and ambitious again, I need my sleep nowadays.
I worked on a few Rail Road derailments. And nobody sleeps intil the wreckage is moved aside and the tracks fixed and the trains are moving again. Sometimes when driving Truck I went without sleep just because I wasn't sleepy and wanted to get home.
They've got to keep those trains moving. I didn't mention the hours I used to put in straight behind the wheel of a semi but I suppose the statute of limitations has run out on all those. My first OTR job the only way I could get any decent time at home was to have a long run home and drive it straight through. No satellite trackers on that truck and we didn't even have a clue there would ever be anything like electronic logs in those days.
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